Highway construction: will German companies receive concrete preference?

The Wroclaw-Zgorzelec stretch of the A4 highway will likely be built using concrete, rather than asphalt, which could mean preference for German contractors. 'Germany is the only country in which concrete highways are being built,' says Dariusz Slotwinski, president of the Polish construction company Dromex. Over 94% of the world's highways are paved in asphalt, which makes roads easier to renovate and widen. There are 10 companies in Poland capable of building modern asphalt highways at a rate of 100 kilometers per year, sufficient for the national highway construction plan. However, if the Transport Ministry chooses to build concrete highways, Polish firms will stand little chance to receive the contracts. Although the European Union is pressing Poland to select EU companies as contractors, Spain managed not to succumb to such demands when it had joined the EU and used mostly domestic firms to develop its highway network. (Zycie, page 8, Prawo i Gospodarka, page 4) T.J.